Most Church of England Christians never read the Bible, survey finds

Research has found that the majority of the Church of England members never actually get round to reading the Bible.

Founded by Henry VIII, the Church of England is an offshoot of Christianity, but just like many other religions across the world, the effort with which it’s followers partake is on the decline.

Just a couple of decades ago it was common in England for most people to take an active part in the religion in which they were born, or chose to be a member of. But now research has shown that for many, being a ‘member’ of said Church is no more than a badge of honor rather than being an active participant.

Data produced by ComRes show how in the Church of England, 60% of followers admitted they had never read the Bible. 36% admitted they never attended church, and a third said they never prayed.

With rates of religion in decline, these statistics come as another blow to organised religion, in that they show that even self proclaimed member of the Church are not active members, how long will it take for these fair-weather members to give up the ghost altogether?

The Church of England is not on it’s own in being affected by these results, across all data taken from Christian religions more than half said they never read the bible.

The contrast between those who partook in the study who claimed to be a member of a religion compared to how they acted out their religious duties is also rather shocking. While 51% said they were a member of a religion, just 6% said they attended church once a week.

Rachel Jordan, the Church of England’s National Mission and Evangelism adviser spoke of how these results have impacted the path that lies ahead for the Church, she said

“There are lots of surveys out there which measure how many people nominally identify as Christians.

“But we, as a group of leaders across denominations committed to evangelism, wanted to devise a measure which shows us who the most committed people are – those who themselves might be willing to take on the task of spreading the good news of Jesus in his country.

So we’ve been tough in our definition, there was no point being woolly, that isn’t helpful to us for the task of evangelism.”

While the results may seem like a blow to the Church, the Church have said they are pleased with the way in which people are being more honest and open with their relationship with their faith.